Tuesday 12 December

A very busy day – with at least 10 or so meetings back-to-back at one point.

I had my regular one-to-one meeting with our Chief Executive Mary Harpley, followed by the Leader’s meeting, which was hosted by Mary and myself, with senior leaders and officers from across the Council.

Later I met with representatives of Tesco to discuss development opportunities in the borough.

This afternoon I met with Malcolm Goodwin, Principal of Capel Manor College, Enfield, which provides a host of further education courses for many of our young people in the borough at Gunnersbury Park.

I then had the chance to grab a quick cup of tea and a mince pie, at the annual festive tea party for our Council staff.

It is a nice event, it gives myself and other Councillors the opportunity to chat with staff and wish them all a happy Christmas and thank them for their hard work throughout the year.

This evening I briefly attended a reception at one of the borough’s local solicitors, Garner & Hancock, before hot-footing it back to the Civic Centre, to chair the Cabinet meeting.

Amongst the items on the agenda that we agreed, were implementing three key initiatives to help ensure that development in the borough is appropriate, taking action to tackle anti-social behaviour throughout the borough and committing to funding 10 new police officers.

Wednesday 13 December

Another busy day.

This morning I joined Mary Harpley, our Chief Executive to meet with John Holland-Kaye, Chief Executive at Heathrow Airport. This is a regular meeting we have, to ensure that is all is being done to mitigate the impact of Heathrow Airport has on our residents.

There will also be a public consultation carried out by Heathrow Airport from 17 January to 28 March 2018 – more details of this will be available soon but visit the Heathrow website for more information.

It’s really important that our residents put forward their views and I urge all of you to have your say.

I had a series of one-to-one meetings, including meeting Jan Lennox, Director of Watermans Art Centre. We spoke about the future development of a new art centre on the site of the former police station. If successful, it will mean a wonderful new art centre as part of a development which will also include affordable homes. I think this will bring new life to Brentford High Street.

Thursday 14 December

This afternoon, we had to close the Civic Centre because of a fire evacuation.

First of all, I would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to any of our residents, including those who attempted to call our Customer Contact Centre between 3pm and 5pm today. I would also like to thank all Council staff for ensuring that all areas were still covered for all our services, despite having to vacate the building.

Meetings I had scheduled, including attending the regular meeting for the Housing Advisory Board, had to be postponed due to dealing with the evacuation.

While I was outside the building waiting for the London Fire Brigade to arrive, I received a call from a resident in Chiswick about flooding near her home. The problem was coming from a water leak between Turnham Green Terrace and Dukes Avenue.

I went down to the area and joined by staff from our emergency planning team. As I couldn’t see anyone from Thames Water, I contacted senior management at Thames Water and asked for immediate action to be carried out.

Friday 15 December

This was necessary so we could remove a tree (which needs to be done in the day time) in order for Thames Water to access and isolate the damaged pipe and fix the leak. We closed the road as soon as after the morning rush-hour.

It is hoped that the repairs will be completed between 6am and 9am tomorrow (Saturday 16 December).

Officers from Thames Water and our staff from the Council’s emergency planning team have been on site to oversee the works. We are working together to minimise disruption as much as possible for everyone.

I went down to the area again today, with Chiswick Homefields ward Councillor John Todd. We spoke to residents and local businesses affected and reassured them we are working with Thames Water to do all we can to resolve this situation as quickly as possible. We have also asked for assurances from Thames Water about replacing the tree.

I would like to thank all our residents and businesses for their patience and understanding while this situation is being resolved and that we are working with Thames Water to minimise the impact as much as possible it will have on all of you.

The rest of today, I met constituents and dealt with casework.

Later I was invited to join the local Muslim community at the Isleworth Public Hall, to attend Friday prayers. I enjoyed this immensely and would like to thank the local community for inviting me.

Good luck to Brentford FC this weekend, the Bees face Barnsley at Griffin Park.